Discussion: Hellas is the most inclusive geographical personification known from the Classical period. According to Pausanias, she was shown with Salamis, in the high Classical period, on the fences in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia [1]. Here Salamis was shown with Hellas. Although Pausanias does not discuss why Salamis and Hellas were shown together in this composition, among gods and heroes, he does mention that Salamis bore the ornament from the ships’ prows, probably the same aphlaston held by the Salamis at Delphi (Hdt. 8.121). The obvious political point is that Hellas was victorious at Salamis, for which reason the painting was an appropriate decoration for a Panhellenic sanctuary. On a slightly subtler level, the monument advertises the importance of Athens’ role in the battle, for Salamis was under Athenian control at this time. As these paintings were creations of Panainos of Athens, brother of Pheidias, they can be considered Athenian products, perhaps intended as propaganda to emphasize Athens’ role as a naval power in the 440s and 430s.

Despite the desire on the part of most fourth-century Athenians, and other Greeks, for Panhellenic unity, a united Greece eluded them in the Classical period: accordingly, Hellas—the personifications of all of Greece—is only known once in the arts of late Classical Athens [2].